Visionary
by thisloser
Summary: This isn't the future either of them wanted to see. Warning: major character death


**Title:** Visionary

**Rating:** G

**Summary: ** This isn't the future either of them wanted to see.

**Characters: **Kakashi, Tobi(to), Gai

**Timeline:** post-canon

**Notes:** written for the Angst meme on naruto_meme again. Anyway, I expect this to be jossed soon.

* * *

There's a bright-eyed boy in the tree in front of his apartment beckoning him to come and see if can break his climbing record, but Kakashi averts his eye and walks past in quick, long strides.

He has a date – he has one every month now – and it won't do to be late to this particular appointment. He can't be distracted.

Can't be distracted by the lanky teenager who is standing at the village gate, who waves and grins triumphantly.

Or the man who tells him he's too late again, too hip and cool, although this one, this one is hard to ignore.

So he hurries now, he always hurries at this point.

Faster, faster, never fast enough.

* * *

They bring him out in chains, chakra-infused ones that – supposedly – are unbreakable, still Kakashi curses Naruto's principles, his insistence on mercy.

"You again," the prisoner says, once the guards have pushed him into his chair and double-checked the chains. "Don't you ever grow tired of this?"

As usual, Kakashi forces himself to look straight at the thick metal contraption that covers the other man's eyes.

"I made a promise," he replies blankly, "and I intend to keep it."

"Hm, I have to appreciate the irony, if nothing else." The lilt of humor in his voice is painfully familiar, but in a strange, distorted way like children's laughter coming from the darkness at the bottom of a well. "Do you still go to that meaningless rock every morning and weep like an old woman?"

Then he smiles, a cruel flash of teeth. "Why am I even asking, of course you do. You'll never change, Kakashi."

"Why him? Why not me? I'm the one you hate."

The prisoner sours visibly, his mouth twisting in distaste.

"Don't be so full of yourself," he almost snarls. "I don't hate one single person; I hate this whole world. You're just a small, insignificant part of it." The anger wears off as quickly as it appeared, evaporates between the cold stone walls. He shakes his head regretfully. "I could have ended this, you know? Your pathetic regrets, the lies, the killing, _everything_. But you chose this instead, and, in a way, it's a little comforting, knowing that at least you're out there, punishing yourself harder than I or anyone else ever could."

"You haven't answered my question," Kakashi insists.

"Why did I kill Gai? Because he believed in you, wanted to be your friend more than anything else, even gave his life for someone like you… It reminded me a little of another boy I once knew… What was his name again?"

Then he laughs, suddenly and shrilly, in a way that startles Kakashi to his very core, makes him wonder if the solitary confinement has already taken its toll on the prisoner, and whether that should make him feel something.

Something other than just the chest-tightening dread, the sense that his blood has frozen in his veins.

But in an instant the prisoners sobers and smiles again. "Just kidding. He was nothing but a maggot that crossed my path, so I crushed him. That's all it was."

Kakashi gets up; he is done here. For today.

"I'll be back in a month," he recites his usual goodbye.

The prisoner sighs as the guards pull him to his feet. He sounds tired. For once, he even sounds defeated. Almost.

"That boy," he calls, when Kakashi is already at the door and bracing himself for a different kind of horror."He made a stupid mistake, giving an eye to someone who never even knew how to use the ones he had. You're all mouth, Kakashi, you just can't see."

* * *

Outside, a man runs past Kakashi, counting laps under his breath. Kakashi turns away sharply, and, eye on the ground, begins to make his way back to the village.

The teenager is still at the gate, bragging about his previous mission. Kakashi would stick his fingers in his ears and run past if he found a way to do it without drawing attention to himself.  
Even in his own apartment he isn't safe anymore. He looks down to remove his sandals, and there _he_ is, the bright-eyed boy, clinging to his ankle, crying, _"I'm not scum!"_

Only in the privacy in his own home does Kakashi allow himself to acknowledge his ghosts. He does so now, addressing the boy gently, "No, you're not."

Thinking, _But, I, I am._


End file.
